Victim In High-Speed Crash ID'd As Foreign Exchange Student: Police

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — A Huntington Beach man suspected of arson and murder after leading police on a high-speed chase that fatally injured a woman was taken into custody Wednesday after being released from a hospital.

Timothy Bradford Cole, 43, was booked into the Orange County Jail Wednesday, the Fountain Valley Police Department said.

Three women in the path of the crash sustained injuries, one fatally, after Cole led officers on a high-speed chase that ended in the deadly collision in Fountain Valley.

The victim who did not survive the crash was identified as Hong Ngoc Nguyen, a foreign exchange student from Vietnam. Her age was not released.

The other two women, both Huntington Beach residents, were released from the hospital Wednesday and were listed in serious but stable condition.

According to police, all three victims had been friends since they were in middle school while growing up in Vietnam.

The crash happened near Ellis Avenue and Magnolia Street, the Fountain Valley Police Department said in a statement.

Cole reportedly doused a bush with lighter fluid and ignited it at a home at 18252 Arches Ct., authorities said. The residents of the home managed to extinguish the fire before it caused any damage, police said.

According to the criminal complaint, prosecutors said the arson was "carried out with planning, sophistication and professionalism," specifically preparing to commit the arson by filling a wine bottle with accelerant, going to the target house but parking on an adjacent street and walking on foot to the target house, wearing gloves and dumping the accelerant in a location likely to catch fire and possibly to go unnoticed.

Police later tracked down Cole's vehicle, a white Dodge Ram truck, in a parking lot in Fountain Valley and conducted surveillance on it until the defendant got in and started driving away, refusing to pull over as police closed in, police said.

The defendant crashed into a BMW X3 at Ellis and Magnolia, police said.

Cole has a lengthy criminal history, according to court records.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug and possession of graffiti tools in December 2003. In December 2007, he pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury, dissuading a witness by force and solicitation to commit a crime with a sentencing enhancement for gang activity.

City News Service contributed to this report.